Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the Member’s comments. I just want to point out that the prior year’s budget was $171.025 million. This year is $254.118 million, so we are not quite at $300 million. So we have added to the budget, but we do, as all Members recognize, have a very rigorous process. Over the years that has been tailored to try to deal with this because it is such an important issue and there are not a lot of resources, and that need for comfort, both to the public we represent and to the Members, that we have as fair and balanced a system as possible in trying to make the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the Member for his comments. The Ministers are now clearly on notice that as they come to this table in the coming weeks, to be able to answer questions in regard to the rationale for projects as posed by yourself.

I appreciate your recognition of the projects in the Sahtu. I well remember the times we spent getting started on a long-term care facility, for example.

Deline hydro, the intent, as the Member is aware, is to work with the community for the next fiscal year to conclude the studies that are required and then we would be able to make a full and...

Thank you, Madam Chair. This budget is entirely in keeping with the plan we laid out at the start of the 17th Assembly, and I think we collectively should recognize how much work we’ve done to get to the point where we could actually put in an extra $50 million a year over the next two years, the last two years of this government, to do a number of additional projects and deal with opportunities that occur like the Tuk-Inuvik highway where there is $200 million, basically for us 30 cent dollars, and the opportunity to put in a piece of much needed infrastructure in the part of the territory...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have with me Mr. Mike Aumond, deputy minister of Finance; Mr. Russ Neudorf, deputy minister of Transportation; and Mr. Paul Guy, deputy minister of Public Works and Services. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am here to present the 2014-15 Capital Estimates of the Government of the Northwest Territories.

The estimates outline appropriations for government and infrastructure contributions of $193 million and $29 million respectively, in the 2014-15 fiscal year.

The estimates, however, do not include appropriations for housing infrastructure proposed by the NWT Housing Corporation in 2014-15, totaling $31 million. The appropriation for these investments will be sought during committee’s review of the 2014-15 Main Estimates. The NWT Housing Corporation’s proposed 2014-15...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that Bill 25, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2013-2014, be read for the third time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that Bill 25, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2013-2014, be read for the first time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We fully recognize that there is a process ahead of us here as we sign the Devolution Agreement. The money and resources won’t flow until probably 2015-16, that we have time for the debate and discussion about devolution and all facets of it including the resource revenue sharing.

I would comment, I’m continually surprised by some of the Member’s opposite that talk about the budgeting process we have, which is the most comprehensive and inclusive in the country, and make it sound like a budget appears in this House that is totally untouched by them with no involvement...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Great Slave, that Bill 25, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2013-2014, be read for the second time.

This bill will make supplementary appropriations for operations expenditures for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2013-2014 fiscal year.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The money from liquor revenues flow into general revenue. Out of general revenue, we do the budget. Out of that budget, we target about $350 million a year to Health and Social Services. That figure increases yearly at the highest rate of any department in government. That includes the cost related to addictions. So every Assembly I have been in – five now – they say, let’s have the symbolic gesture of taking some money that already goes into revenue and target it and have some special levy on alcohol that you can point to that we are doing work over and above $350...